Romney to replace hope and change with change and hope

I remain convinced that “repealing Obamacare” is the Republican version of “closing Guantanamo”–a nice bone for the base on your way toward regaining power, to be discarded upon reaching office. Even if I’m wrong, scrapping the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act still leaves health care as an increasingly expensive burden on many small businesses, since no politician has the guts to break the link between employment and insurance in the first place. Simplifying regulations sounds good, until you realize that our current and previous presidents promised the exact same thing, while regulating their asses off (yes, including George W. Bush).

And–this is important, so listen up!–generic phrases like “champion small businesses” get converted through the sausage-making of government to something Romney should be campaigning against, not for: crony capitalism. Once you politically over-valorize a class within the economy, then that class starts getting special favors, wasteful loan guarantees, and all sorts of government goodies.

Hope you enjoyed that brief detour through policy!